Back-to-School: (Back)Pack it up

So it’s the second week of school (for me) and I find myself ready for winter break already. On the upside, I have learned how to successfully sell a pen to someone who clearly doesn’t need it, why consumer spending won’t get us out of this recession (no more shopping trips with “helping the economy” as an excuse), and that in medieval times, men cried more often than women as a means of seduction. Oh, the joys of my education.

But back to the point: School bags! I don’t know about you Uglies, but finding the perfect school bag to lug around all of my school necessities is a time-consuming and difficult process. I am the kind of person who carries the same bag every day for school (too lazy to change things around), so the bag has to be absolutely perfect.

My criteria?

1) (Real) Leather or Canvas – Since discovering that lots of faux leathers contain high levels of lead, (the cheery news reached me via the checkout counter of my local Urban Outfitters, aka faux leather city) I’ve only been buying the real deal. Leather and canvas are natural and hold up well to daily use.

2) Big – Size matters. I carry big stuff — namely, my laptop, which, though not huge at 13.3," is still rather sizable (Read: hard to fit in a bag). I refuse to go for a laptop case because I hear those are often stolen because of their obviously valuable contents… and I’m tiny enough to lose to any mugger. So I need a bag that can accommodate.

3) Stylish – Of course! School bags are huge and would therefore have a big impact on whatever outfit you wear! I’d definitely say that you consider investing in something nice that you’ll like for a whole year, and just plan on using it every day.

My suggestions: (handpicked from the Internetz. If I had the money, I’d grab every stinkin’ one of these.)

The bag I use? A Jenny Yuen Hitchcock in Chestnut (I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I saw it!), though I used a Foley + Corinna City Tote almost every day last semester. (Big investments! Though both were heavily discounted.)

love the bags, but the thing is, after a while, maybe 2 weeks or so, my shoulder starts to hurt a lot, & switching shoulders can only do so much. do you ever find yourself having this problem, esp with a laptop? i walked the berk campus hills each day for the past 4 yrs (whoo graduated!) and found it easiest to lug around my laptop & notebooks in a backpack, and probably a textbook in my hand.

CoedUgly on September 05
I only really run into problems when I try to carry laptop + notebook(s) + book. Usually, I just grin and bear it. And given the right backpacks (see above) you can look pretty spiffy, imo.

CoedUgly on September 05
Yeah, I know what you mean. I always keep my bag on my left shoulder (for some reason, I can't but bags on my right... weird balancing problem or something) and it definitely hurts a bit after a while. Bags with thicker straps help, though. and the messenger strap lets me switch shoulders decently. A lot of people I know only carry around notebooks or just a laptop, which are relatively light.

Awwww I love love love your schoolbag so much! May I steal it? I also think leather bags are the best, you buy them once and have them forever because they are very hard to break. The only sad thing is that they are so expensive. I'm also used to have big bags for school/university as I have to carry around a lot of stuff like my sketch book, laptop, pencil case, etc.